Alaskan Inuit Food Sovereignty Summit Report

Outcomes and recommendations from the Summit held in Nome, Alaska September 10-12, 2019

News Release

Inuit Circumpolar Council - Alaska

Inuit Circumpolar Council Alaska would like to share with you the Alaskan Inuit Food Sovereignty Summit Report, which contains the outcomes and recommendations from the Summit held in Nome, Alaska September 10-12, 2019 at the Nome Covenant Church.

The Summit is the centerpiece of the Alaskan Inuit Food Sovereignty Initiative and brought together nearly 80 Inuit from across the North Slope, Northwest Arctic, Bering Strait, and Yukon-Kuskokwim regions to discuss food sovereignty and the lack of direct Inuit management of the resources that we depend on. Summit participants focused on developing a collective way forward to secure consistent access, management authority, and rights over our traditional food resources.

Leading up to the Summit, two regional Steering Committee meetings were held, one in Utqiagvik in January of 2019 to launch the Initiative and another held in Bethel in April of 2019 to plan and prepare for the Summit.

The next steps of the Initiative are to plan and prepare for the final Steering Committee meeting to be held in Kotzebue, Alaska at a later date, as it has been postponed due to COVID-19. The Steering Committee continues to meet on a regular basis and are now working to draft our Action Plan.

Please see the following links for more information on the initiative: